Circadian Rhythms and Social Factors
Abstract
Social factors can more or less influence the circadian rhythms. We propose in a first part to review the different types of influences of social factors on rhythms in Vertebrates. After that, we will describe ours results on this topic on two connected points in birds. At first, we search how circadian rhythm can influence social life in Japanese quail. We demonstrated that birds showing a strong endogenous rhythm are more synchronised into a group. More recently, we found that these birds are more socially reactive, and are more easily integrated in a new group. Then, circadian rhythm influence social life of animals. In a second way of studies to link rhythm and social life, we are interested by social influences on rhythm development. Social influences can emanate from parents, in particular mothers during ontogeny. Studies show that the maternal rhythm of mammals during gestation and during the early life of their young influences the ontogeny of rhythms. In birds, we recently demonstrated that mothering favoured the expression of endogenous rhythms of the chicks. Moreover, mothers possess a non-genomic transmission of their circadian rhythms parameters. To conclude, we will expose perspectives of works, especially following a new way of approach using robot animal interaction we developed in our research unit.